TAB
Creating an omnichannel betting experience that bridges digital and physical experiences to drive customer engagement and venue growth.
Tabcorp operates over 4,000 physical retail TAB venues across Australia, a unique competitive asset in the betting industry. As a consultant product design lead with Publicis Sapient, I helped Tabcorp develop "Venue Mode", an innovative feature that integrated their mobile app with physical venue experiences. By leveraging geofencing technology and addressing key customer pain points, our team created a seamless ‘phygital’ experience that drove measurable growth in both digital engagement and venue commissions.
Deliverables: User Research, Product Strategy, Feature Validation, UX & UI Design, Prototyping, Stakeholder Workshops
Project Type: Mobile App, B2C, Omnichannel Experience, Geofencing
Team: Product Design Lead (me), Business Analyst, Developer, Project Manager
Business Goal
Tabcorp wanted to leverage their extensive retail network to win back market share and drive top-line growth. With competitors restricted by regulation and lacking TAB’s historical venue footprint, the company saw an opportunity to create a unique omnichannel experience that could boost digital wagering, attract new customers to the app and drive more foot traffic into venues. The project needed to incentivise venues through commission structures, deliver genuine value to existing digital customers and unify the venue and app wagering experience.
User Goal
Traditional venue punters faced physical challenges such as lost betting slips, long queues at electronic terminals and a general lack of awareness about offers and exclusive markets. The goal was to reduce these frictions by creating a more convenient in-app betting experience, providing customers with accessible and anticipatory ways to view markets, check betting slips and collect winnings. For digital-first customers, the aim was to expose them to the benefits of physical venues, social interaction and a broader wagering experience.
Design Process
As an embedded consulting team, we were tasked with creating a validated proposition that bridged physical and digital experiences. Working closely with Tabcorp's commercial and product teams, I led a comprehensive discovery process that balanced customer insights with commercial viability. Here's how we tackled it:
01. Customer Discovery
I created a survey that was distributed to existing retail and digital customers. Analysing the 345 responses helped us understand how punters were using apps within physical contexts, what motivated them and how we could leverage existing behaviours. The data uncovered key insights about preferred betting methods (electronic terminals, over-the-counter or app), functional drivers (research, checking results, placing bets, collecting winnings) and environmental factors that influenced betting decisions.
02. In-Depth User Interviews
In addition to the quantitative surveys, I conducted user interviews with 24 venue-only punters and app users who had never visited a retail location. These conversations helped us understand more about the emotions behind different betting behaviors, revealing what users enjoyed about each experience and what frustrated them. The qualitative insights were crucial for understanding the nuanced differences between digital-first and venue-loyal customers, helping us design features that would appeal to both segments without alienating either.
03. Collaborative Ideation
Beyond research, I facilitated workshops with Tabcorp’s commercial and product teams. These sessions included journey mapping, crazy eights, lightning demos and other co-design activities that surfaced additional ideas and fostered collective ownership of the final solution. The workshops aligned stakeholders around user desires and needs while also identifying technical constraints and business opportunities that shaped the feature set.
04. Feature Validation
Once we had a set of feature ideas, I tested desirability through a card sorting activity with a cohort of another 24 punters. Insights from this validation exercise informed our RICE prioritisation framework and led us to select the ‘Check and Collect’ feature for launch. By giving users the ability to scan, store and redeem winnings from physical betting slips we were able to reduce retail terminal waiting times and mitigate the pain of cash ticket loss. Punters had also expressed strong interest in exclusive markets and offers, which we also prioritised alongside ‘Check and Collect’.
05. Experience Design
Using insights from discovery activities, I designed proof-of-concept flows and mobile UI to demonstrate the core ‘Venue Mode’ experience. This included how geofencing would automatically trigger venue activation, how users could access exclusive promotions and the 'Check and Collect' scanning process. The designs focused on seamless transitions between standard (out-of-venue) app usage and venue-specific functionality, ensuring users immediately understood the additional features available on-site.
06. Agile Development & Handover
I worked closely with the business analyst, developer and project manager as part of a cross-functional Scrum team. Together we prioritised, scoped, estimated and documented all features based on our research insights and my validated design concepts. This work enabled Tabcorp's development team to build the required functionality, while providing their marketing team with the clarity needed to plan launch and go-to-market strategies.
Tabcorp’s ‘Venue Mode’ pilot rolled out across more than 50 venues and delivered strong outcomes. Venues with the new product features saw a 4% uplift in revenue, a 9% increase in active users and a 26% growth in venue commissions compared to control venues during the same period. The pilot’s success paved the way for a full rollout across TAB’s network of over 4,000 venues, driving a 14% increase in digital revenue within the first 12 months post-launch.
For me, this project demonstrated how thoughtful UX research and collaborative design thinking can unlock innovative solutions, even within traditionally conservative organisations. The success of ‘Venue Mode’ has strengthened Tabcorp’s position as it competes with more nimble, digital-first challengers.
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